A bonus point loss was all Glasgow could muster from a scrappy away game against Cardiff Blues at the Arms Park tonight.

After the game, head coach Sean Lineen said: “There are mixed emotions I suppose. The first 20 minutes really killed us. The players let themselves down badly and we allowed Cardiff to get the go-forward far too easily in the first half.

“We came good in the second half when we scored a couple of tries. It was a pretty taxing game and Colin Gregor gave us a little spark when he came on.”

Prop Moray Low added: “We were a bit disappointed with our defence. We got back into the game once we started throwing the ball about a bit but it was our defence that let us down a bit. We let them build up too much momentum.”

After just 21 minutes, the Warriors found themselves 19 points down as Tom James, Dafydd James and Jamie Robinson touched down for the hosts with Ben Blair converting all three scores. Glasgow replied with two Dan Parks penalties.

The Warriors then suffered two other blows, literally, as in the first 40 minutes, Kelly Brown took a hefty head knock and Stevie Swindall limped off with a sore ankle, leaving the back-row requiring serious repair.

However, with the dynamic Calum Forrester and powerful Opeta Palepoi in reserve, the Warriors showed little adverse reaction to the two injuries.

At the start of the second half, Dan Parks, who showed incredible accuracy with the boot all night, chipped ahead after a Glasgow line-out. Winger Hefin O’Hare gave chase and offloaded to Ruaridh Jackson who finished off. Parks converted.

Ben Blair grabbed a penalty just minutes later before the Warriors struck again.

Parks booted the ball high in the air from the Cardiff 22-metre line which sailed over the posts. The scoring zone was swarmed with black jerseys and Bernardo Stortoni showed great control to collect and touch down. Parks converted.

Having clawed back to within four points, the Warriors slipped behind once again as Blair slotted another penalty and Robinson claimed his second try of the night. Blair converted the try.

Colin Gregor came on to replace Mark McMillan at scrum-half and proved to be the injection of pace that Glasgow lacked in the closing stages.

Opeta Palepoi acted as the transition between two of Scotland’s most potent Scotland 7s points machines as Gregor’s initial break found Colin Shaw on the wing. Shaw showed tremendous power to hand-off his opposite man before scoring despite the best efforts of a final defender. Parks converted.

Cardiff Blues: Ben Blair; Gareth Thomas, Jamie Robinson, Dafydd Hewitt, Tom James; Ceri Sweeney, Jason Spice; John Yapp, Gareth Williams, Taufa’ao Filise, Bradley Davies, Paul Tito CAPTAIN, Maama Molitika, Robin Sowden Taylor, Xavier Rush
Substitutes: Gary Powell, Ross Johnson, Deiniol Jones, Ben White, Richie Rees, Nicky Robinson, Richard Mustoe

Glasgow Warriors: Bernardo Stortoni; Hefin O’Hare, Jose Maria Nunez Piossek, Ruaridh Jackson, Colin Shaw; Dan Parks, Mark McMillan; Justin Va’a, Dougie Hall, Moray Low, Dan Turner, Alastair Kellock CAPTAIN, Stevie Swindall, Kelly Brown, Johnnie Beattie
Substitutes: Fergus Thomson, Ed Kalman, Opeta Palepoi, Calum Forrester, Colin Gregor, Chris Kinloch, Peter Horne